TCT Awards
Wednesday night saw the winners of the TCT Awards 2024 announced, including eleven technology and application awards, the Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award, the Sanjay Mortimer Rising Star Award and three new Inductees to the prestigious TCT Hall of Fame.
After a busy first day at TCT 3Sixty (the UK's definitive and most influential 3D printing and additive manufacturing event), guests enjoyed a three-course, black-tie dinner, drinks and inspiring awards ceremony.
Almost 250 industry professionals gathered to celebrate the winners of these prestigious awards. The Ceremony was held at the National Conference Centre, Birmingham, hosted by technology and science presenter Dallas Campbell.
Of the evening, Nora Toure, WI3DP said: “Last night was one to be remembered in the books of 3D printing! […] The TCT Women in 3D Printing Innovator award is always a big moment for the Wi3DP and TCT teams as it consecrates our shared mission of promoting our amazing female leaders and innovators in the industry. [….] Congratulations to all the winners of these distinguished awards!”
Duncan Wood, CEO of TCT Group added: “It was amazing to host our sixth edition of the TCT Awards tonight, and I was honoured to be able to introduce our three new Hall of Fame inductees during the ceremony, all of which were truly deserving. We had some fantastic winners this evening showcasing just what can be achieved when this brilliant technology is used to its full potential.”
The night was sponsored by 3T Additive Manufacturing and PLG Engineering, with Materialise as a drinks sponsor. TCT were also proud to introduce the brand-new 3D printed trophies for 2024, designed and produced by PLG Engineering.
This year’s awards recognised a multitude of achievements and outstanding contributions to the 3D printing and additive manufacturing sector.
The eleven category awards celebrate key technology developments, as well as the all-important applications and use-cases of these technologies across different industry verticals. Winners and highly commended finalists of the TCT Awards are chosen by a selection of over twenty industry experts from the TCT Advisory Board who make up the judging panel.
Three new inductees to the TCT Hall of Fame were also announced. The Hall of fame is a prestigious accolade which celebrates those members of the additive manufacturing community who have made a positive, significant and long-term impact on the industry.
Andy Christensen – medical applications specialist advisor
Andy Christensen is the founder of Medical Modeling, a world-leading medical device company which utilised 3D printing to develop new toolsets in virtual surgical planning, personalised surgical guides and personalised implants. Before selling the company to 3D Systems in 2014, Andy and his team contributed to the care of more than 70,000 patients, including more than two dozen sets of conjoined twins.
Max Lobovsky – founder of Formlabs
Max Lobovsky is co-founder and CEO of Formlabs, a pioneer in affordable desktop stereolithography 3D printing. Prior to Formlabs, Lobovsky led efforts at Fab@Home, one of the industry’s earliest open-source 3D printing projects. A Forbes’ 30 Under 30 recipient and World Economic Forum Pioneer, Lobovsky holds a B.S. in Applied Engineering and Physics from Cornell University and a M.S. in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT.
Melissa Orme – AM researcher and application specialist
TCT Awards
Melissa Orme is Vice President of Additive Manufacturing at The Boeing Company where she leads the development of AM solutions for aerospace and space applications. A renowned AM pioneer across three decades, Melissa served as Full Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California Irvine, where she established globally recognised research laboratories before transitioning to leadership roles at high tech start-ups including Morf3D.
The winners and highly commended entries from each category were as below.
TCT Aerospace & Defence Application Award – Sponsored by Hyphen Innovation
Winner: Phased Array Antenna Cold Plate
Entrant: Boeing
The use of aluminium alloy powder bed fusion to produce this multi-functional cold plate for the O3d satellite constellation has increased the strength and lifespan whilst reducing costs by 80%.
Highly Commended: QTEAM Quantum Devices by Metamorphic Additive Manufacturing
TCT Automotive & Rail Application Award – Sponsored by Formlabs
Winner: Closed-Loop Motorsport Tooling
Entrant: Airtech Advanced Materials Group
Partners: Oak Ridge National Lab; The Brumos Collection; Verus Engineering
A carbon-fiber aerodynamic splitter mold was manufactured using recycled materials from redundant molds. The splitter played a pivotal role in enabling the Brumos Racing Porche to set a New World Record as the fastest car in its class.
Highly Commended: Iron Maven by Girl Gang Garage
TCT Consumer Product Application Award - Sponsored by Finally Agency
Winner: Superyacht Sundeck Hot Tub
Entrant: Massivit
Partners: Nautic
Massivit and Woltz Nautic have produced an innovative 3D printed hot tub in their proprietary Dimengel thermoset acrylic. The hot tub weighs 100 kg less than traditional counterparts and significantly reduces installation time by approximately 260 hours per tub.
Highly Commended: Bauer Hockey Helmet by EOS North America
TCT Creative Application Award - Sponsored by Massivit
Winner: Touch & See Museum Stands
Entrant: Lancaster University
Partners: Lancaster City Museums Service; Galloways
This unique low-cost haptic stand allows museum visitors with sight loss to feel the lithophanes 3d surface and listen to audio descriptions to experience a version of the museum’s 2D object.
Highly Commended: Lost Village Festival Showstopper by PrintCity
Hardware Award – Non-Polymer Systems - Sponsored by WAAM
Winner: AMCM M290 FLX with nLIGHT lasers
Entrant: nLIGHT
Partners: Optoprim; AMCM; Ohio State University
The AMCM M290 FLX is one of the first laser powder bed fusion machines on the market to provide beam shaping capability. Which dramatically opens the processing window, enabling higher powers, faster scan speeds, and bigger layer thicknesses.
Highly Commended: PureForm™ H200 by Greene Group Industries
TCT Hardware Award – Polymer systems Award - Sponsored by TCT Asia
Winner: PE320 Pellet Extruder
Entrant: Rapid Fusion
Partners: Xtrution; Ai Build; Adaxis; KUKA
The Rapid Fusion PE320 Pellet extruder has been developed with an innovative power-to-weight ratio, enabling an industry leading 17.2Kg per hour throughput for its small 22Kg weight.
Highly Commended: Pulsar™ Atom Pellet Extruder by Dyze Design
TCT Healthcare Application Award - Sponsored by HP
Winner: Personal Fit Breast Prosthesis
Entrant: Arburg
Partners: HASHTAGTWO
The ‘hash tag two’ breast orthosis, manufactured with the Arburg freeformer, can be fully tailor-made, including shape, density, size, colour and in certified medical product grades which are light weight, breathable and 100% recyclable.
Highly Commended: UltraThineer Veneers by Boston Micro Fabrication
TCT Industrial Product Application Award - Sponsored by JEOL
Winner: Commercial Nuclear Fuel Flow Plates
Entrant: Westinghouse Electric Company
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine put fuel supply at risk, Westinghouse developed the world’s first fully western VVER440 nuclear fuel, with the top and bottom flow plates in every assembly produced with AM.
Highly Commended: Fume Hood Gas Ejector by Labconco
TCT Materials Award - Sponsored by TCT Mag
Winner: Al5X1 High Strength Alloy
Entrant: EOS
Partners: Sintavia; Vast Space
EOS AL5X1 is a high-strength aluminium alloy that boasts excellent elongation and density properties. The material not only meets aerospace requirements, but is also suitable for the semiconductor and electronics industries, exceling in anodization and corrosion resistant applications.
Highly Commended: CIM 84 - ASTM E84 Class A Compliant Resin by Massivit
TCT Post-Processing Award - Sponsored by TCT Japan
Winner: PostPro SFX Desktop Vapor Smoothing
Entrant: Additive Manufacturing Technologies
The PostPro SFX is the world’s first benchtop vapour smoothing system, developed to enhance the surface finish and mechanical properties of thermoplastic 3D printed parts using AMT’s fully green PostPro Pure chemistry, which is sustainable and FDA approved.
Highly Commended: DryLyte Hybrid Finish by Steros GPA Innova
TCT Software Award - Sponsored by Polygonica
Winner: Fixturemate
Entrant: trinckle
Partners: Deutsche Bahn; Audi Sport; ERIKS
Fixturemate has been developed to simplify and accelerate the creation of custom manufacturing fixtures, leveraging advanced algorithms to design parts in minutes, allowing users to keep pace with ever-changing assembly lines.
Highly Commended: AI Recoater Eye Online Quality Monitoring by nebumind
TCT Women in 3D Printing Award – Sponsored by EOS
Winner: Brigitte De Vet-Veithen, Chief Executive Officer at Materialise.
Brigitte de Vet Veithen led Materialise’s medical segment as Executive Vice President of Materialise Medical, which became the company’s fastest growing and most profitable business segment under her leadership, and now serves as CEO.
TCT Sanjay Mortimer Foundation Rising Star Award
Winner: Charlotte Bridgewater
Charlotte Bridgewater is a student at Newcastle University who has a passion for helping others. As a female in a field where women are underrepresented, she embodies creativity, self-motivation, hard work, and most importantly, compassion. She has shown remarkable resilience against adverse situations that could have hindered her success, making her a deserving recipient of the SMF Rising Star Award.
